The Italian actor who was accidentally strangled when a hanging scene went wrong in a stage play, has been declared brain dead, according to the BBC.

As part of the experimental interactive play Mirages at the Teatro Lux in Pisa, Italy, Raphael Schumacher, 27, was reciting a monologue from Frank Wedekind's Spring Awakening when, instead of using a gun, as was called for in the script, Schumacher put a mask over his face and placed his head in a noose.

An audience member, reportedly a medical student, noticed that the prop noose was tightening around Schumacher's neck and he was trembling. Schumacher was taken down and rushed to a local hospital where he never regained consciousness. It was not clear why he was not wearing a body harness in the scene. Police are investigating.

One of his fellow actors was quoted saying, "The noose should have been fake and a harness should have caught him if he fell. I cannot explain how an incident like this happened."